13 Essential Tips For Passing A WWE Try-Out

9. Know Your Audience (And Listen To Advice)

That brand awareness can't be stressed enough. Even when you come from a famed wrestling family, turning up with a gimmick that won't work with a WWE audience is another sure-fire way to be branded an immediate no-go. Just ask Zak Zodiac - brother of Paige - whose attempt to make it in the WWE was documented as part of Channel 4's The Wrestlers: Fighting With My Family (the one now being adapted into a movie courtesy of The Rock).

Though his sister was signed on the spot, Zak was shunned for his physique not being up to scratch. So he bulked up, packed his bags and tried again the next year - admirable adaptability, but something else wasn't right. He turned up with his football hooligan gimmick - something well suited to England, where people actually like football and WWE together, but not so much in the US - where soccer still isn't mainstream.

The hyper-violent mentality obviously covered his lack of mic ability, but it was never going to work for WWE, where you have to contend not only with the preferences of the assessors (and Vince McMahon as the obvious extension) but also the cash-paying audience.